What's the most affordable HARDWARE ENCODED PCI TV Tuner?

[deadken]

I recently bought a Leatek TV2000XP expert TV tuner for my sons computer. The image quality is certainly better then his last card (Happauge Win TV-Go), and I think that this is as good as its gonna get for software encoding (this card is a 10bit card). The ATI TV Wonder Pro that is in my daughters rig definately looks better then this (I honestly don't know what kind of encoding the ATI card has, and I don't know what bit it is either).

The sad thing is that I had bought my son a ATI TV Wonder, but ended up selling it after have software problems on my daughters rig (after a FRESH XP Pro install). Sure enough, after a call to ATIs tech support, they said go back to an older version of the software (so much for getting the latest software from the manufacturers website after a O/S re-install). I sold off the ATI card and assumed it wouldn't be an issue getting a better card. Man was I wrong.

I don't know how much my son will use the TV on his PC. If he uses it as much as my daughter uses her TV, I'll be looking for a better card. Any thoughts?

-Thanks, Ken

CLIFF NOTES:

Bought (2) sub $30 cards (after rebates) and isn't happy with either. Had a card that I was happy with (software not withstanding) and sold it off before opening the box. Need suggestions on what I should look for.

EDIT: Yes, I recycled this thread (there were no replies to it anyway)

 

[zephyrprime]

Get the hdtv wonder. Image quality is perfect because it is hdtv. Even the antenna that comes with it is surprisingly good.

 

[dug777]

I'm confused as to what is the problem, but may i suggest a DVICO card like i did last time?

I've had a great experience with their HDTV DVB-T-lite card in Australia, the IQ was breathtaking on my 21" CRT, the DXVA decode support meant that it used very little cpu (2.1Ghz AXptbred-b), the remote was excellent (and worked with other media apps too, nice bonus), there were regular software updates...can't think of anything i would fault it on actually...

IIRC the US HD equivalent is the Fusion5?

 

[deadken]

Originally posted by: dug777
I'm confused as to what is the problem, but may i suggest a DVICO card like i did last time?........

Yes, you may. But, I will explain that I am NOT necessarily looking for a HD TV Tuner. I want GOOD picture quality with the feed that comes from my cable company. I know that it is possible, considering how good it looks on my TV and my daughters PC. The problem that I am having is that the colors seem to 'roll'. If there is a black background, it doesn't seem to stay pure black. It seems as if a little red and green flash through it. Don't get me wrong, it still isn't horrible (not with this leadtek card), but to me it is very noticable. I have to wait and see if my son even notices it before I go and drop $150 on a new tuner.

Also, last time you never mentioned it was called the Fusion5 in the US. I did some research and that is all I could find but I didn't want to risk a high dollar investment without being positive. Can you explain what the difference is between the 'lite' version and Gold version is?

Also, can I be sure that this will work with my Digital Cable feed? I DO NOT want to run an antenna for this! I think that I need QAM (which this seems to have) to use my local cable as input instead of an antenna, is that right?


BTW:
System specs: S754 3000+ (2Ghz stock @ 2.4Ghz) w/AMD 4Pipe cooler,
Gigabyte Motherboard NF3 chipset
1GB Patriot 3200 2,2,2,5 Ram,
80GB 7200rpm (2mb) HD,
Leadtek 6600GT AGP w/Zalman GPU cooler.